SEX WORK AND THE LAW - HIV/AIDS Data Hub

4.5 Maldives
Illegal
SEX WORK IN
PRIVATE
Illegal
SOLICITING
Illegal
BROTHELS
4.5.1 Laws 222
Islamic sharia law is part of the domestic law. Sexual acts outside of marriage are
criminalized. Article 88(a) of the Maldivian Penal Code 1967 makes it an offence to disobey
an order issued lawfully within the sharia. Article 88(a) is regarded as a catch-all provision
to cover situations involving conduct considered by officials or police to be immoral. In
addition, the Rules Relating to the Conduct of Judicial Proceedings criminalize sexual activity
outside marriage. These rules are founded on Islamic law principles. Provision 173, Subsection
13 of the rules governs the offence of fornication. The offence prohibits persons
from engaging in sexual intercourse with a person to whom marriage is forbidden.
4.5.2 Law enforcement practices
There are reports of migrant sex workers from neighbouring countries being arrested
in the Maldives in 2008 and 2010. 223 Raids on guest houses and massage parlours were
reported in 2009. 224 A World Bank analysis in 2008 observed:
There are networks of ‘middle men/women’ who can arrange sex with foreign sex
workers, who come to the Maldives on visa runs from their usual location of work in
Sri Lanka and India. There are women from Sri Lanka, India, Southeast Asian countries,
Russia, and Eastern Europe. 225
In 2011, the Maldives government ordered all spas in resorts to be closed after protests by
an Islamist party, which claimed they were being used as a front for prostitution. 226
4.5.3 Efforts to improve the legal environment
The National AIDS Programme’s Operational Plan on HIV (2010) states:
[T]aboos and lack of awareness of public health implications of driving underground
sex work (whether opportunistic, regular street-based or escort based) and MSM make
222 See: Robinson P., (2006) Final Report of the Maldivian Penal Law & Sentencing Codification Project,
University of Pennsylvania; Committee on the Rights of the Child (2007); Consideration of Reports Submitted
By States Parties Under Article 12, Paragraph 1, of The Optional Protocol To The Convention On The Rights of the
Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography: Maldives; Republic of Maldives Attorney
General’s Office (2004) National Criminal Justice Action Plan, 2004-2008.
223 See: Five Sri Lankans deported from Maldives for engaging in prostitution, Asian Tribune, 7 November
2008; Nazeer A. (2010) Police arrest HIV positive prostitute, Minivan News, 4 November 2010.
224 Prostitution on the rise in the Maldives, Minivan News, 26 December 2009.
225 World Bank (2008) HIV/AIDS in Maldives, Washington: World Bank.
226 Concern over Maldives spa ‘prostitution’ closures, BBC News on-line, 30 December 2011.
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